Wednesday, 22 April 2015

according to W4RGAMER, German EU forum community manager, patch 0.9.7 will be delayed on the EU server until the WGL finals are over. These take place on 25.-26.4. which means that the patch will likely appear at 27.4. or a day later.

- developers are not considering limiting the amount of provices a CW clan can hold at the same time
- new CW 2.0 (CW overhaul) will bring "improved conditions for smaller clans"
- it's possible that the Stronghold mode will overlap with CW
- CW 2.0 ETA: "when it's done it's done"
- whenever a new tank is introduced in the game, the demands (conditions) for a mastery badge are considered by averaging other vehicles of the same class and tier
- developers are not planning to limit CW obtained vehicles to non-random battles
- 9.8 shouldn't be delayed after all despite the 9.7 delay
- there will be better garage tank filters in the future
- 9.8 will bring "some cool features"
- 9.8 test will start in May
- the mass-production of HD models was already started and theoretically HD models should be now produced and implemented
- Storm on ultra-HD textures: "For now, our position is that players do not need those. But there are several opinions on that within Wargaming. It's possible something will change."
- Storm's personal opinion is that super high resolution tank textures are not needed when the rest of the game (maps) still uses poor lowres textures. These things make sense only when the maps get reworked to HD. He is personally satisfied with the current HD tank texture quality.
- developers are considering reducing the artillery alpha
- it's possible that the alleged 9.7 separation of newbies and experienced players on low tiers is not working correctly on RU, Storm is investigating
- there is an issue in 9.7 with debriefing text screen resolution, it will be fixed
- players claim that the "Berlin Cromwell" model has a wrong gun - in the description, it should have the elice Cromwell gun but visually it corresponds to the pre-top gun. According to Storm this is intentional.
- the current IS-2 Berlin text description in the client is wrong as well (it will be fixed)
- the rule where one HE shell cannot kill more than a half of the entire tank crew with one shot is active only for non-penetrating HE hits
- it's possible that Type 62 will be buffed
- 9.7 is not introducing the XP for tanking
- developers checked the barrel rinks (marks of excellence) mechanism. It is correct.
- according to Storm, the most important feature of BigWorld is that it allows the players to play even on really bad computers (unlike Frostbite, CryEngine and Unreal engine). Developers tested it.
- apparently the 9.7 brought a nasty bug where artilleries and light tanks for some reason are being stacked in the queues and not put in battles.

the patch 9.7 came to the RU server today, here's a short Q&A that is (mostly) related to it.

- The "newbie protection" in 9.7 means that players with less than 2500 battles will play together on tiers 1-3 while players with over 2500 battles will play with other experienced players;
- Confirmed: M56 Scorpion will not be sold just so, it will be some sort of special/event tank. It will be awarded "for certain achievements that will be published later";
- It's not certain that bad computer owners will see a FPS increase in 9.7;
- The main goal of the 9.7 Bigworld upgrade was not to improve performance but to implement elements of the engine that will allow WG to bring in new features;
- Artillery viewrange nerf is one of the "steps of global vehicle rebalance", because "arties are supposed to shoot with someone else spotting". Other classes will be re-balanced as well;
- AMX CDC will be available for gold in in-game shop in 9.7, preliminary price is 7450 gold;
- It's possible that artillery will get more XP for shooting;
- German Somua S35 premium will not be removed from the premium magazine "in this patch";
- Accuracy (nerfed in 9.6) will not improve;
- Swamp will be "reworked nicely" in 9.8;
- "Not only high tier tanks" will undergo "a complex penetration overhaul" in the future.

RU server has another interesting event: from 22.4.2015 to 18.5.2015, the players will be able to transfer free XP to crew XP again (using the ratio of 1 free XP point to 5 crew XP points). It's possible to transfer free XP only to crew members with 100 percent training.

check this out. This is the CTLS 4TAC tankette, used by the Dutch army early in WW2 as a "tank" in the colonies. These vehicles were not very good (to put it mildly) and were quickly phased out. This tank was phased out in 1943 and was sent to New Foundland (apparently by the Americans that recovered it).

check this out. This is a "replica" of a "German halftrack" that was made by someone in Volgograd lately, likely for some sort of re-enactment. Usually, German "halftracks" are created by taking post-war halftracks of American or (for more realistic option) Czechoslovak production (Czechoslovakia used the halftracks as standard troop transports for quite some time) and marking them with German colors, but this (especially the halftrack suspension) looks like it was made from scratch. Notice the somewhat strange tracked parts with rubber-banded roadwheels.

And while we are at it, check this out. This is an "airsoft Abrams" from Russia, made for airsoft battles (in this case, the "Battle for Manhattan"). It's built on a MT-LB chassis and actually equipped with rudimentary thermal sights not to run "masked" airsofters over. We might have a look at this particular "tank" later on in a separate article.